Why Is The Fashion Industry Reluctant To Embrace Disabled People?

Music by: CjOnTheBeat – Nemesis. Image credit: Gucci.

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After Gucci cast Ellie Goldstein, an 18 year old model with Down Syndrome, her campaign pic became the brand’s most liked picture ever on Instagram. So that got us wondering: why is the fashion industry so reluctant to do inclusive fashion?

In a recent article for The New York Times, Keah Brown, who has cerebral palsy, expressed what she calls “the stages of fashion grief”, explaining that disabled people, “have always had to make wardrobe hacks to navigate features like zippers, buttons, shoes and irritable fabric tags.”

Keah explained that “disabled people want to be able to have freedom of self-expression through fashion rather than accepting scraps”

This led her to create the Twitter hashtag #disabledandcute, which she explained can be “used by like-minded people to share pictures of ourselves and to declare that we are just as cute and worthy as anyone else.”

But why is the industry so reluctant to change?

Keah questioned “why there seems to be more enthusiasm for clothing lines for dogs than for disabled people.”

Is change not well-overdue?

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See also: GUCCI AND ZEBEDEE PAVE THE WAY FOR DISABLED REPRESENTATION IN FASHION

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